"Culture of Life"

An article by Garance Franke-Ruta in the June issue of the American Prospect contains a telling factoid about Tom Delay's trips paid for by Jack Abramoff.

Saipan, part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands was a focus Abramoff's concern in the 1990s. As a U.S. territory, it can sell products -- made by foreign workers without protection of of U.S. labor laws -- with a warm and fuzzy "made in the USA" label. When the Clinton Deptartment of Interior produced a report critical of the Commonwealth's labor practices; Delay acting as Abramoff's French Poodle, worked to punish the Interior Department. According to Franke-Ruta, one of the practices of Saipan's garment factories is "forcing women to have abortions so that they could keep sewing."

Tom Delay regularly makes unctuous statements in support of the "culture of life." He opposes federal funding of stem cell research because "an embryo is a person." He spearheaded congressional intervention in the Terry Schiavo case, although at times he has trouble keeping her cause separate from his:

This is exactly the kind of issue that's going on in America, that attacks against the conservative moment, against me and against many others. The point is, the other side has figured out how to win and to defeat the conservative movement, and that is to go after people personally, charge them with frivolous charges, link up with all these do-gooder organizations funded by George Soros, and then get the national media on their side. That whole syndicate that they have going on right now is for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to destroy the conservative movement. It is to destroy conservative leaders, and not just in elected office, but leading. I mean, Ed Feulner, of the Heritage Foundation today was under attack in the National Journal. This is a huge nationwide concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in. And you need to look at this, and what's going on and participate in fighting back.

The Abramoff/Saipan business shows the Delay -- who passed on an opportunity to stand up for women who didn't want abortions and instead sided with their bosses -- abandons the "culture of life" when it goes against the wishes of powerful interests.